The Coinbase team has sued the US SEC body for rejecting its petition for clearer cryptocurrency rules.
Coinbase is a US-based, Nasdaq-listed American crypto exchange known for its highly compliant crypto services in the US. After the crypto exchange Binance, Coinbase is the largest crypto market leader. Over the past few years, the Coinbase team has contributed immensely to forcing US regulators to provide clarity on crypto regulations.
Nearly 18 months ago, Coinbase’s lawyers filed a petition in court seeking clarity on the rules used by the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) to regulate the crypto sector.
The SEC body did not provide any response to this issue, so in response, the Coinbase team took the SEC body to court for evading the petition filed.
On December 15, 2023, Coinbase Chief Legal Officer Paul Grewal informed the crypto community about Coinbase’s legal action against the SEC body.
Additionally, Grewal noted that U.S. regulators claimed there was no need for new regulations or laws for this sector.
Grewal drew attention to a statement made by SEC Chairman Gary Gensler during congressional testimony, in which Gensler admitted that there were no regulatory authorities applicable to the cryptocurrency exchanges.
Coinbase’s legal officer also noted that the Commodities Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) also recently released a somewhat SEC chairman-like statement.
With the latest legal action, Coinbase aims to push US lawmakers to create rules and laws for this sector in a joint approach.
After this lawsuit, the trading price of Coinbase (COIN) stock fell 3.73%, from $151.92 to $146.
Coinbase US SEC
The legal battle between Coinbase and the SEC body has been active for a long time. This year, the legal battle between Coinbase and SEC turned fierce in March when the SEC body issued a notice from Wells to the stock exchange for conducting unregistered securities offerings.
Later in June, the SEC body sued the Coinbase exchange for conducting unregistered securities offerings and operating an unregistered national securities exchange.
Later in an interview, Coinbase CEO Brian Armstrong revealed that just before the lawsuit, he had received an order from the SEC agency to remove the majority of crypto assets from the exchange, but the exchange refused to follow such orders as the SEC body failed to provide the reason/clarity behind the violation of rules and laws.
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